Apple processors: Designed differently but here to stay

Rumors of an iPhone 5s and iPad 5 are already circulating. Nothing too intense yet but they are there. When these two devices do land they will likely sport an A7 and A7X, respectively. That is, unless Apple pulls the plug on its custom chip design and opts for an off-the-shelf Intel product. This is not our hypothesis but it is out there, even on Wall Street.

At the end of November Doug Freedman, an RBC Capital Market analyst, floated the hypothesis that Intel would fab Apple processors if Apple moved the iPad to an Intel processor. It almost suggests the Apple-designed application processors (APs) are somehow a stopgap until something better appears. This seems like the perfect backdrop to look at the “A-series” family, think about the evolution therein, and weigh the evidence for Apple’s semiconductor design intentions.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves let’s consider the A6 and A6X. The debut of the A6 along with the iPhone 5 was pretty much expected from both the hyperactive Apple rumor mill and the simple logic of refreshing the AP in sync with the iPhone.

However, the appearance of the A6X, some 41 days later inside the iPad 4 was very much unexpected. It was a little more than half way into the “usual” annual iPad refresh cycle and there was only a vague, late warning from the Apple pundits.

Die photographs of the A6 and A6X that were first published by Chipworks, with our added annotations, are reproduced below. Probably the single most striking feature of both is the in-house designed CPU. Going further, it was a custom design where the layout was performed manually, instead of using the common automated “place and route” approach. In their discussion of the A6 ChipWorks commented: "This is a more expensive and time-consuming method of layout. However it usually results in a faster maximum clock rate, and sometimes results in higher density." They go on to say: "In fact, with the exception of Intel CPUs, it's one of the first custom laid out digital cores we’ve seen in years!"

There isn't much to add except to say that Apple is serious about and making considerable investment in their design capabilities. So, regardless of the reason for the custom design, this clearly supports the hypothesis that Apple is not producing placeholders while it waits for an Intel processor.

Apple probably feels that they can do better. The most succesful ARM processors come from Qualcomm and the CPUs are Qualcomm's own and not ARMs.
I would also guess that the royalty associated with ARM architecture license is lower than that of an ARM CPU design.

Apple probably feels that they can do better. The most succesful ARM processors come from Qualcomm and the CPUs are Qualcomm's own and not ARMs.
I would also guess that the royalty associated with ARM architecture license is lower than that of an ARM CPU design.

Apple is battling Samsung and others in this market and margins are crucial. Apple cannot affort to write a royalty check to Intel for each iPhone sold especially when Samsung is using it's own processor. http://www.katalogstron-seo.pl/

Apple is battling Samsung and others in this market and margins are crucial. Apple cannot affort to write a royalty check to Intel for each iPhone sold especially when Samsung is using it's own processor. http://www.katalogstron-seo.pl/

great comments, especially since keeping all those LTE bands running increases the RF power consumption by up to 20 % and forces you to charge your 4G phone before you can get to the Happy Hour after a hard day's work.
20 nm FinFET would certainly make a diff. over TSMC's 28 nm LP and at this point Intel would probably be happy to just become THE Foundry for A7,8,.. designed by Apple rather than keep insisting on Fab-ing only their own x86 designs. Perhaps they would be happy making their own Merrifield ( x 86, 20 nm FinFET ) for high volume low priced / mid range Smartphone brands like Lenovo for emerging markets and gain new markets on the basis of price and power efficiency thanks to smaller and less leaky transistors ( the FinFETs ).

great comments, especially since keeping all those LTE bands running increases the RF power consumption by up to 20 % and forces you to charge your 4G phone before you can get to the Happy Hour after a hard day's work.
20 nm FinFET would certainly make a diff. over TSMC's 28 nm LP and at this point Intel would probably be happy to just become THE Foundry for A7,8,.. designed by Apple rather than keep insisting on Fab-ing only their own x86 designs. Perhaps they would be happy making their own Merrifield ( x 86, 20 nm FinFET ) for high volume low priced / mid range Smartphone brands like Lenovo for emerging markets and gain new markets on the basis of price and power efficiency thanks to smaller and less leaky transistors ( the FinFETs ).

For me the only useful takeaway from this rather long article is that so far as top line Phones & Tablets are concerned, GPUs have become more important than CPUs. This sort of falls in line with Samsung's strategy as well. This means that in the foreseeable future the importance of CPUs from ARM will diminish and top OEMs like Apple and Samsung will spend more effort in tweaking their store bought GPU IPs, adding better algorithms, perhaps even hardwiring them in micro-code. That might be the game Apple would have better chance to stay ahead of Samsung - till of course the next Killer App comes along that does not need higher res. / faster Video !

For me the only useful takeaway from this rather long article is that so far as top line Phones & Tablets are concerned, GPUs have become more important than CPUs. This sort of falls in line with Samsung's strategy as well. This means that in the foreseeable future the importance of CPUs from ARM will diminish and top OEMs like Apple and Samsung will spend more effort in tweaking their store bought GPU IPs, adding better algorithms, perhaps even hardwiring them in micro-code. That might be the game Apple would have better chance to stay ahead of Samsung - till of course the next Killer App comes along that does not need higher res. / faster Video !